Lazy Sunday question

[netnet]

Here is a lazy Sunday question (to answer I should look through all of Buffett's early partnership letters myself but I have not, hence "lazy Sunday")

 

In the early years, did Buffett have look for catalysts in his investments? I think he did not, but I am putting the question out to the collective minds of the Corner!  The subsequent question would be, if he did not, was that a wise decision.  (In answering that question, let's just assume that his early capital was stable, which it seemed to be.)

[peter1234]

I believe he had a category called work-outs.

 

They usually worked out over a defined time frame.

 

Our second category consists of “work-outs.” These are securities whose financial results depend on corporate

action rather than supply and demand factors created by buyers and sellers of securities. In other words, they are

securities with a timetable where we can predict, within reasonable error limits, when we will get how much and

what might upset the applecart. Corporate events such as mergers, liquidations, reorganizations, spin-offs, etc.,

lead to work-outs. An important source in recent years has been sell-outs by oil producers to major integrated oil

companies.

[LC]

He did a bit of merger arbitrage I believe, but back in those days I believe the spreads were far juicier. He also took activist positions.

[mpauls]

Other than the arbs and a handful of control situations he typically did not.